Stateless Babies: The Legally Invisible Children of The Migrant Crisis

Pregnant Venezuelan women migrate to Colombia in search of food, medicine, and a dignified life for them and their babies. There are many Venezuelan women who could only have access to diapers, milk, proper nutrition and prenatal control in Colombia. Only in Colombia would they be able to give birth without the fear of dying in the attempt. The problem, however, is that Colombian legislation is clear and these children cannot have Colombian nationality and enjoy the rights inherent to that citizenship. The Colombian government is being proactive finding mechanisms to at least give an identity to these kids and reduce their vulnerability by staying in immigration limbo. However, there’s the risk we may be having “an invisible generation” of Venezuelans who do not legally exist in either country.

To contextualize, there are two traditional systems of transmission of citizenship at birth. The first, the jus solis, used as criteria for granting citizenship to those who have been born in the country. According to the second, the jus sanguinis, the nationality is obtained by a person when he or she is a descendant of a citizen of a particular country. Because of this last concept, children of foreigners in a country with the first system in their legislation (the jus solis) have no right to that country’s citizenship.

There are many Venezuelan women who could only have access to diapers, milk, proper nutrition and prenatal control in Colombia.

A few weeks ago I reada report by El País on the odyssey Venezuelan women have to go through to give birth in Brazil given the precariousness of health services and the alarming rates of maternal infant mortalities in Venezuela. According to the report, the annual average of births in the border state of Roraima went from 8,000 to 12,000 in 2017, an increase of almost 50%, mostly of Venezuelan babies. Fortunately, these babies will have the opportunity to enjoy the Brazilian nationality while they wait to obtain, at some point, their Venezuelan one. Having access to a nationality is key to enjoying other rights, and Venezuelan babies, like most Venezuelans, don’t have easy access to birth certificates or passports, especially when they’re born overseas.

The Venezuelan mothers who come to Brazil have the certainty that their babies will have access to Brazilian citizenship, thus all rights granted to a Brazilian citizen. This is because the Brazilian legislation goes by the jus solis to grant nationality so that any baby born in Brazilian territory is automatically a Brazilian citizen.

However, there’s another unforeseen effect of the recent exodus of Venezuelans to other countries, and particularly to Colombia. In the case of babies born from Venezuelan mothers in Colombia, the Colombian Political Constitution establishes in its article 96 that Colombians nationals by birth only include those babies born of Colombian citizens (by birth or naturalized), or those born of foreign parents but who have residency in Colombia at the moment of the birth.

The Colombian Political Constitution establishes that Colombians nationals by birth only include those babies born of Colombian citizens.

Many of the Venezuelan mothers giving birth in Colombia do not meet these requirements and also suffer, as do many Venezuelans who need a passport, the impediments and difficulties to process the documentation and the registration of their babies in the Venezuelan consulates in Colombia.

What happens then?

When these children are born, many face a situation of statelessness, albeit temporary, basically understood as the condition of a person who lacks a national identity, that is, children who do not enjoy recognition as a citizen of any specific nation, which automatically conditions their possibilities of enjoying different rights.

The case of these children confirms, once again, the unfortunate effects of the exodus of Venezuelans, as a result of the political, social, economic and humanitarian crises in Venezuela. And it’s also another sign that what’s happening in Venezuela has ceased to be a national crisis and has become a regional one whose consequences we’re only now starting to see.

** Points of view are personal. They do not represent the position of the OAS.

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As I understand it, the child born in Miami will be an american citizen, so when he is at least 18 years old and in a economic situation to sponsor his parents then he can do so. As for other members of his family like grown siblings and so forth the queue is years long.

“The policy stems from the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and was meant to override the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that denied African Americans citizenship.[5] The application of birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants remains controversial among right-wing politicians.[6] The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that approximately 7.5% of all births in the U.S. (about 300,000 births per year) are to unauthorized immigrants.[7] The Pew Hispanic Center also estimates that there are 4.5 million children who were born to unauthorized immigrants that received citizenship via birth in the United States; while the Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are 4.1 million children. Both estimates exclude anyone eighteen and older who might have benefited.[7][8]”

My daughter is almost 7 years old. My wife is Venezuelan so a few years ago we went to renew her passport at the consulate. We took all and every document available to register my daughter as a Venezuelan citizen but the consulate demurred to do so. Given that we were mostly interested in getting my wife’s passport we did not push the point. She is a US citizen both by birth and by blood.

Funny thing is I am also a Peruvian citizen too, by blood, and by soil, so I went to the Peruvian consulate and ‘cero peo’ -she is Peruvian.

If she has to go into Venezuela for an eventuality, she MAY be hassled by the authorities on her way out.

As for my daughter’s birthright to be Venezuelan, I don’t lose sleep about it, I was just being diligent, like my mom who once she could get up after my birth walked into the US embassy and made me an American citizen.

Are you sure you want to register your daughter as a Venezuelan citizen? If you are ever in Venezuela with your daughter and an evacuation is needed, the US government will not be able to do so. If she enters Venezuela with a Venezuelan passport she will be stuck there.

and everyone born in Venezuela and accidentally stopping by without the infamous passport could use up a full year to get out. Of course not, you pay between USD5000 and 10000, to the band of criminals are you’re done.

You are discovering that the water is wet. This has been the gameplay since my grownup children were left without the Venezuelan passport, around the year 2000. I tried raising my voice then and everyone bullied me. We renounced to the Venezuelan citizenship right away. Soon after we became proud USA citizens.